This afternoon, nurses, licensed nursing assistants, mental health techs, labor and delivery assistants, unit secretaries and other patient care professionals at UVM Medical Center (UVMMC) joined together with members of the Vermont Workers Center to call on UVMMC to respect their rights to organize a union.

Routinely we are asked to care for 13-14 patients on a given shift when to be giving the best care a number closer to 7-8 is most reasonable. And conditions have only been getting worse. ... We come to work to care for our neighbors because that is what we love to do. We can no longer be put in situations to be heartbroken for people because we are not given what we need to do a job well.

That is why we have been working to build our union. We know that when we are involved in decisions about our work, better decisions will be made. We are disappointed that the Hospital administration believes that they can make decisions about our jobs without us, especially because the decisions they have been making lately are not working to improve the quality of care.